More than 2,000 face shields are being made at the College of Aeronautics and Engineering (CAE) and other colleges on campus, using 3D printing to combat COVID-19.
Thanks to the United Way of Portage County donating $3,000 and Burton D. Morgan giving $10,000, ’s Design Innovation Printing Team, has been able to finance projects to locally combat the effects of COVID-19.
“I’ve been printing for 7 weeks and have made nearly 500 bands for the face shields now,” says Darwin Boyd, Ph.D., CAE. “I make about 60 shields a week.”
There were several people involved in the design of the band for the face shield, and employees helping print the product, including Mark Ashmore, Lead IT User Support Analyst, CAE. Several students from the college also helped to assemble the face shields.
Face shields were donated to the Health Center and Campus Police. Most of the face shields go to Medwish and Medwish distributes them. One hundred face shield went to the City of Kent.
Kevin Pospichel, Senior IT Analyst, College of Architecture and Environmental Design, was involved in the design of the shields. Boyd has been involved with designing and modifying other designs for 3D printed masks.
“I have mostly modified designs to accommodate nasal cannulas, in particular high flow cannulas,” Boyd said. “These masks would be worn by COVID patients while receiving oxygen and would reduce the amount of virus that the patient exhales, thereby reducing the viral load in the room and hopefully improving safety for caregivers.”